Dutrow considering two for Woodward

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said he planned to enter Trickmeister and perhaps Isn’t He Perfect as well for Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodward, but may not decide the status of either until later in the week. Entries for the Woodward were to be drawn Wednesday.

Trickmeister pressed the early pace before tiring to finish fifth in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap on Aug. 4. He also was third behind Mucho Macho Man in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap earlier this summer at Belmont Park. Isn’t He Perfect is coming off a second-place effort behind San Pablo in an overnight stakes here Aug. 2.

Both Trickmeister and Isn’t He Perfect were entered “for dirt only” in Thursday’s $100,000 Equalize Stakes.

“It depends upon who’s running and who’s not in the Woodward, but we’ll probably enter Trickmeister and maybe Isn’t He Perfect and take a look,” Dutrow said by phone from Aqueduct on Tuesday. “That gives us a few days to make up our mind.”

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Dutrow said the fact the free-running Trickmeister was not on the lead may have contributed to his fifth-place finish in the Whitney.

“I don’t know why they gunned that other horse to the front like that,” Dutrow said, referring to the pacesetting Endorsement in the Whitney. “But when he did that, it took the race away from us. That’s not the game we see our horse play. It’s Trickmeister who usually goes to the lead and controls the pace. Ramon [Dominguez] said Trickmeister sat off the pace and seemed to be going well, but it just didn’t work out. If things are different in the Woodward, it might be better for him.”

Dutrow also reported that Willy Beamin will remain at Saratoga following his victory in Saturday’s King’s Bishop. Willy Beamin won the King’s Bishop just 72 hours after capturing the Albany Stakes for New York-breds the previous Wednesday.

“We’ll just leave him where he is, he seems to like it over there,” Dutrow said. “We have nothing planned for him at the moment, we’ll just float along and bide our time for now.”